IT WORKS

       I have been slowly working on transferring my photos from my old computer.

       First, I had to find out that I would need a memory stick. 

       Then I had to figure out how to download to the memory stick. Funny things happened. First, I loaded about a dozen files and then zip it decided to load about 4000 photos on it's own.

      Well, I didn't know if anything loaded or not so I thought I'd check. Things looked wonderful until I discovered that I was on the old computer and not the memory stick. That was a blow to my confidence. So okay, the photos were on my memory stick..

      Well then it took a while for me to try using a photo from the memory stick. I finally got up courage and then had to look around and find out how to open a file on blogger. After about an hour it worked.

      So for today's blog, I will show you the second photo I every took on a digital camera. Here I am in 2008 watching birds about a km from my house.  

     

GOOD BIRDING THIS MORNING

       We had an excellent bird walk this morning. It was plus 12 C, calm and partly cloudy. 

     We went to a place called Heritage Ranch which was set aside for parkland and developed in the 1970's . Part of it was farmed and used to raise cattle. A large part of it was taken for gravel pits. Trees shrubs and grass have come back to these areas and it makes for some good birding habitat. 

     We had 16 spotters of various ages, shapes and sizes.

 We saw 22 species. More of the spring migrants are starting to show up. 

Protocol: Traveling
5.416 kilometer(s)
Checklist Comments:     RDRN Bird Focus Group outing
22 species

Canada Goose (Branta canadensis)  5
Mallard (Anas platyrhynchos)  10
Common Goldeneye (Bucephala clangula)  1
Common Merganser (Mergus merganser)  2
Franklin's Gull (Leucophaeus pipixcan)  5
Osprey (Pandion haliaetus)  2
Belted Kingfisher (Megaceryle alcyon)  1
Downy Woodpecker (Dryobates pubescens)  2
Hairy Woodpecker (Dryobates villosus)  1
American Kestrel (Falco sparverius)  1
Merlin (Falco columbarius)  1
Peregrine Falcon (Falco peregrinus)  2
American Crow (Corvus brachyrhynchos)  4
Common Raven (Corvus corax)  1
Black-capped Chickadee (Poecile atricapillus)  55
Boreal Chickadee (Poecile hudsonicus)  3
Ruby-crowned Kinglet (Corthylio calendula)  1
Red-breasted Nuthatch (Sitta canadensis)  2
American Robin (Turdus migratorius)  4
Dark-eyed Junco (Junco hyemalis)  1
Song Sparrow (Melospiza melodia)  2
Yellow-rumped Warbler (Setophaga coronata)  4

View this checklist online at https://ebird.org/checklist/S108501732

This report was generated automatically by eBird v3 (https://ebird.org/home)

     Now I am not a bird photographer. I may be able to give some links tomorrow for photos. 

     But to show you my lack of skill here are my two bird shots. Nuff said!

 

FIRST SPRING OUTING

      Today was the first time I went birding with the group since Nov. of 2020. We had 13 birders. It was a treat to get out with people and bird together.

      We went to a site that is very good bird habitat. Half of it is old growth never been logged forest. With so many old trees we find many woodpeckers and one day saw four species.  The black backed woodpecker is very hard to see but we've seen them in this area. The brown creeper is also hard to spot but we were lucky enough to see a pair in breeding season and watch them chase each other around the tree. 

      Today we saw 19 species and 4 other species that we could not identify. A real treat was to have two flocks of swans fly over. Another treat was to see an owl on the nest with owlets. 

     Many species are just beginning to return to the north. Water species like swans, geese and ducks are here. Crows are also back but the song birds have not arrived. We saw one tree sparrow today but they are early migrants. 

     It's good to be birding after two years. So you say, "Where are the photos?" I alternate between field glasses and camera as I don't like to carry very much. So maybe next week end I'll have a few photos. 

BIRDING AT MACKENZIE TRAILS

      So this Saturday we went to a location called Mackenzie trails. It's a park made up of heavy old growth forest, meadow and wetlands. All of this is along the river. Much of the area has had gravel taken out of it. There are many great trails for walking and cycling. This also makes it easy to bird. On occasion we do go off the trails. There is also a pond of 5 acres.

     So it makes it an excellent place to go birding. Yesterday the visibility was very poor because of the smoke. However we did see 23 species. We were surprised to see quite a few warblers here. We identified the yellow rumps but there were two other species and we couldn't get a good look at them to make an identification.

SATURDAY BIRDING

     We had another good morning of birding. We went to Hazlett Lake which is a small local lake on the edge of town. It's private property but one of the favorite places the group likes to go.

     Today there were very few birds on the water. It's still a little early for the main migration of waterfowl. We saw 18 species today and that's without a lot of water birds.

    The family that owns the property has had their own golf course for many years. No one else plays this course.

    Estelle is making her way from the shore. the riparian area has been taken over by canary reed grass. Most native riparian plants have disappeared.

      Bertha makes her way from the shore.

     I found a tree that had recently been damaged by lightening. 

    A field of canola that has been swathed and ready for harvest.

     The original family home.

BIRD WATCHING

       I went bird watching with a group for the first time in 2020. As you know I lead a local birdwatching group here. I make up a schedule and publicize the activity. I made up a schedule in May and found somebody to lead in the field. There was no one to lead in the field yesterday so I went out.

      It was a real treat to get out. I didn't know that I missed it so much.

      I took photos of the area we visited. My camera isn't good enough for birds.  We saw 25 species yesterday in 2 hours.

     So here's where we found the birds.

BIRDERS HAVE GONE HIGH TECH

      About ten years ago I took over a bird watching group that had fallen apart. No one wanted to organize anymore. I spent much of my time wandering around the area bird watching or watching many other things. So I said to myself, " It's my time to lead a bird watching group." My first session brought out only one person. Things improved after that. I soon learned how to publicize things. We had bird watching activities on our web site.

     There are quite a few excellent birding areas within the city. We go out of town to visit half a dozen sites. One of them is the Ellis bird Farm.

    When I started the only thing people brought with them were binoculars. I carried a bird book in my backpack. We had fun but didn't find a lot of birds.



    Tony is checking on his bird app.


    As time went on a few people showed up with some high end cameras. They also turned out to be excellent photographers. Now we usually got a few excellent photos of the bird that was hard to see and just a quickly flew away. So there we were with a photo. We could look at the bird as long as we wanted. We had evidence and took as much time as needed to make an identification.

   Then people started showing up with an app on their phone which was better than a bird book. One could see several photos, watch the bird fly and listen to a call.

    So in ten years bird watching changed a great deal. Bird watching is still fun, maybe more fun, as we get to identify more birds.

    Now covid -19 has prevented us from going out as a group. Birders are bad for getting in a close group to look at pictures in order to identify what was seen. So what to do about bird watching. Well, one of our birders suggested that people go out on their own and report their sightings and photos to our facebook page. It was a roaring success. People went to different areas and reported many sightings. It's a good way to watch birds but since birders are such a social group we are just waiting to go back out as a group.



    Notice Ariane in the middle looking at photos . Then there's someone behind ariane with a humungous lens.

   

    This is one of my favorites. some wise guy said there's a bird. I wonder what it is. In about a minute Gary told us it's flight # and its going from Germany to LA. 

A GOOD BIRD WATCHING DAY

      Yesterday (Jan. 25) we had a fine winter day with a high of 4 C and clear.  What better thing to do than to do a little bird watching.

      At 4 above C it's reasonable to use field glasses and cameras.

      I had put this on my bird watching call list Fri. night so had 2 people show up to go with me. I also persuaded the Micro Manager that it would be very good for her to go with me. She enjoyed herself.

    One of my favorite winter birding sites is Mackenzie Trails. It's an area of old growth forest. It has never been logged. It's a mixture of aspen and spruce. We are fortunate to have this right inside the city.

     Here the birds we will see in the winter is quite predictable. So yesterday we saw: black-capped chickadees, red-breasted nuthatch, white breasted nuthatch, pine siskin, common raven, downy woodpecker, hairy woodpecker, woodpecker and a blue jay. Possible sightings could have been: boreal chickadee, black-backed wood pecker, great horned owl, brown creeper.

               A look toward the forest.

      I can't understand why birders would go the wrong way. But this shows the dense forest.

       I look at a bit of a clearing caused by a viscous wind storm five years ago.

       Bird nests are easy to find in winter when the leaves are gone.

      
    

FALL BIRD MIGRATION

     Fall bird migration can be a very active time for birders let alone the birds. We are at 52 degrees latitude so there's a lot of territory north of us. We have one of the largest boreal forests north of us. The Arctic tundra and islands are also north of us, so with our local birds and those passing through, fall migration can be interesting if you're watching.

     What this post is about is the migrating birds in my yard and those in the neighborhood.

      This morning was a busy morning. Robins are in rough flocks. They are crazy. They chase one another at break neck speed. Once in a while one hits my window. Most of these are birds of the year and the red breast is frosted as we say. The red is quite dull and and more gray.

      Also this morning the Brewer's blackbirds were around in abundance. There are large flocks of mixed Brewers, rustys and grackles. This morning they helped themselves to the feeder and bird bath. Blackbirds seem to spend only a few days and then they are gone.

      There were a few chipping sparrows.

      Now I was so busy I didn't notice crows. There are very large flocks of crows...in the 1000's.

      There were smaller birds flying higher...above tree tops and I couldn't recognize them. They may have been vesper sparrows.

      Just when all this activity ended a flock of 11 geese flew over. Migrating geese can go through until Christmas. They just keep coming from the north.

      Now there are resident birds in the yard too. Chickadees, nuthatches woodpeckers, flickers and blue jays also visited this morning. 

     Since I was in the house I didn't take any photos. To be honest, I was so busy I didn't even think of a camera. Here are some photos from other years.

BIRD WATCHING SEASON STARTS AGAIN

      I lead a local bird watching group. What it means is that I make up a schedule, publicize it and show up to take people around. I usually have a good idea what birds we might see in an area and then the challenge is to find the little critters. 

      I have about 25 people who attend some of the sessions. I get from 10 - 15 each time. I also have some very avid birders and some who are highly skilled. 

     Most of the sites we visit are in the city. They tend to be parks with some good native habitat. We spend about 2 hours at each site. 

    Last spring we were getting very good and would find 20 - 30 species in the two hours.

    Yesterday was the start of our fall bird watching schedule. We went to an area we had never visited. This summer someone told me of a new bike trail. The trail is made up of an old road allowance and part of it has been destroyed. Some artificial wetlands have been created. Houses are built up to the old road and the other side of the road is country. I thought this would be a good place for one of our birding outings. When I was riding birds kept flying up out of the grass.  Most nights I would see a merlin. There were geese and riding through goose poop wasn't a lot of fun.

    So did we have a good time yesterday morning ? You bet we did. The area is junky as it's being developed . Along with the trees and grass there's a good supply of weeds.

     We were happy to find 15 species of birds. It was dull and hard to see. Many of the species were sparrows and they are hard to see in the best of light.

     I've been complaining all summer about my glasses being filmy. I say it's better without my glasses. The Micro manager says I have to wash my glasses. Yesterday it was hard to get a good look at the birds. I wasn't seeing much color. Things were dull. Somebody said get new binoculars with better light.

    I've thought things over. It sounds like my cataracts have changed this summer. I will have to get in and get things checked.

     My apologies for no photos. I don't like carrying both the camera and binoculars.

MY BIRDING GROUP STARTED SATURDAY.

      I lead a bird watching group in the spring and fall. Every Saturday morning at 10:00 AM will find us at some site where we will watch  birds for two hours.

     Saturday was the first scheduled walk of the spring season. Most springs by April 7 we will have mild spring weather. Not this year. In fact, it could be well compared to one of the colder winter days. It was minus 16 C ( 1 F) . There was a wind of about 30 km per hour . It was brutally cold. I had my wind pants on and a good coat with a few layers. Oh yes, I also wore winter boots. The other birders were well clad in winter gear.

    However, we did get bare hands out to use cameras and binoculars.

    Now none of us expected to see much. Birds usually stay close to cover when it's windy and cold.

    Well, on my way down to the location I saw a golden eagle.  It was flying across the school yard a block from my house. That was a big sighting  for  me.

    As we were waiting in the parking lot we saw lots of American crows and Bohemian waxwings.

    After that it was a bit of a challenge. We could hear chickadees and nuthatches but didn't see them. I asked the group if they wanted to go off the trail and find the chickadees. Yes, of course.  About 50 m in someone saw bird in a dark part of the woods. It looked like some kind of hawk. It was very hard to see but someone said, "It's eating something!" Yes, it definitely was eating something. It was hard to get a look at the bird as the light conditions were very poor. Finally somebody got a good photo. Yes, it was a Sharp-shinned hawk eating a bohemian waxwing.

      Thanks to Lynette for her fine photo. You can see how close the camera had to be focused to get this one.



    We spent about 10 minutes having a look at this little hawk and finally left .

    500 m further on we saw a pileated woodpecker sending large chips flying as he was looking for grub. The pileated paid not attention to us and we finally left.

    So what we thought would be a poor day wasn't that bad after all.

SEVEN DAYS CONTRAST

      I spend a lot of time outdoors wandering through parks and natural areas. It gets me outdoors. It gives me some exercise and it certainly does wonders to overall good well being. I lead a bird watching group once a week and sometimes you have to work pretty hard to pursue the little birdie to make an identification.


    Now most days you are going to meet someone to visit with. You meet all kinds of different people. Since I carry binoculars , most people can guess what I'm doing.


    From time to time you find things. These days the woods are filled with junk from homeless people. Sometimes I report the junk and the city picks it up and if it's small I clean it up myself.


    Sometimes you find other things...wallets. Usually there's nothing left. Twice I found wallets and the only thing missing was cash. Then I turn them in to the police.


    Yesterday I found something different. I saw a bit of black cord sticking out of the snow. I thought it might be keys so I kicked the snow away. Surprisingly it turned out to be a flashlight. I wanted to see if it worked and if not it would go in the garbage. One of the birders told me how to turn it on and yes it worked.


    Now the flash light likely belonged to a homeless person as they use the flashlights to navigate through the bush and also as a bicycle light. They also use them for lights in their tent.


     Now when I got home I googled to see what I had. I found out that it was a $50.00 flashlight. I've never found anything of value that I could keep. The light is LED and the beam shines up to 751 feet!




    Sometimes you get lucky!

CANADA AT 150

      This year on July 1 is Canada's 150th birthday. There are many events and celebrations planned. Not too much has been advertised yet. Most events will take place July 1. However, other events will take place in the summer season.

      Now I think most readers know that I lead a bird watching group on Saturdays. We don't go out birding in the winter so I have extra time to think about things. Now that could be dangerous.

      I came up with the idea that we look for 150 bird species in our city and surroundings!!! So this is one event that will run most of the year. People will report bird species that they see to an email address. Yours truly will sift through the sightings and make an official list of species sighted. This idea was met with enthusiasm so here we go for a Canada birthday project.

    With this project we will be celebrating Canada's birthday.

    I also hope that this project will get some publicity. The local paper picked up my project proposal to members within 24 hours so that was great publicity. With publicity I hope that birders will get to know other birders. I hope other people just generally get an interest in birding.

    I also hope that the public becomes aware of the importance of natural habitat in the health of bird populations and other wildlife.

    So wish us well in finding 150 species this year and around July 1 you can wish us happy birthday.

     As of today we've found 35 species.